How To Create Affordable and High Quality Content That Makes Money

Content is undoubtedly the most important part of every website. If you want to:

Rank well on Google,

Drive more traffic and

Make big money,

…You need content 🙂

Content can be anything that people can digest on your website, such as:

articles

videos

images

infographics, etc.

But for the sake of building a successful niche website that generates passive income, the most popular and favorable type of content people always put on their websites is written content. In this post, I will be sharing with you the approach that I’ve used for over 2 years to create hundreds of high quality articles at an affordable price, which are the back bone of my online businesses.

What Is High Quality Content?

Understanding what makes high quality content is the first thing you need to know. You can write your own content or outsource it to professional writers; however, the criteria defining a high quality content remain the same. Here is how I define high quality content:

Have a Specific Reason

Answering the “Why” of your content is very important. If your content doesn’t serve a specific goal or purpose, you are wasting money. We’re doing business, and every business needs to generate enough profit to survive, right? This is the step to help you do that. For our niche website business, there are 2 main types of content:

Content that makes you money. The goal of these articles is to convert the visitors into customers/email leads or to convince them to buy something through your affiliate links. They are: product reviews, sales pages, squeeze pages, etc. If your preferred monetization method is Google AdSense, the articles that make you the most money is the ones that target high CPC keywords. Having a specific reason in mind when creating your content will help you decide the way you create it to clearly lead people to perform some specific actions while reading.

Content that establishes your website as an authority in the eyes of both visitors and Google. The first type of content as described above makes people leaving your site. As a result, those pages will have high bounce rate and low time on site. Google doesn’t like that! That’s why we need this second type of content which will be informative, tip-based and attractive enough to keep people on your site. You should include video and interlink your articles as it will greatly improve the time on site and lower the bounce rate. The longer people stay on your site, the higher quality Google determines your site to be because they’re staying there, they’re consuming your contents. That’s the mark of a high quality site. In short, the goal of those articles is to make people and search engines love your site :).

100% Original, Conversational Style and Standard Grammar/Spelling

Your content must be 100% unique. Actually people don’t care about this as long as the content is helpful to them, but Google cares. You don’t want to screw up all your hard works, right?

You are publishing content for the web; and web audience, unlike an academic audience, will expect you to use a conversational tone. So remember to always use the word “you” in every article. Write like you are talking to the reader as a friend. Just by doing so, you will earn their trust and they’ll be willing to give you money :P. Another thing to remember is using standard grammar, the internet is not a place to show off your high level grammar. Try to create content that even a child can understand!

SEO Optimized and Relevant

In order for your website to rank high, your content should be properly optimized for SEO. Try to avoid over optimization as It can get your website penalized. Here are some basic on-page SEO:

Keyword in title.

Keyword in description

Keyword in h1

Keyword in image alt tag.

Keyword in some other paragraphs.

Link to another internal pages.

Link to some authority sites.

You shouldn’t care about keyword density anymore. There’s no exact science about it. Just use keyword in the article whenever it makes sense. Stuffing keyword will your article ridiculous and will get you banned as well.

“Scanable” and Well-Structured

Here are a few ways to make your content “scanable” and well-structured:

Use short paragraph (2-4 sentences each)

Bullet point lists are much easier to scan than an essay

Use bold or italic to emphasize points.

Use subheadings to help the readers get the main point of each part.

Short and concise. Get to the point and don’t include fluff and useless content.

Use high quality images and videos to give your reader a “visual break”.

If you have taken time to craft a well-researched article, take some time to make it “scanable,” so the readers will love to read your content.

What About Minimum Word Count?

This is the factor that most people often get confused. In my honest opinion, you can rank fast even with 100 words but to maintain the ranking and quality of the site, you have to provide more values, which means more words. There are no limits here, you can write as many words as you can, but I tend to create minimum 800-word article. That’s enough to provide helpful information.

The Best Article Templates

The easiest way to create high quality article is to follow templates. I’ve found some great resources for you and your writers. [wpsharely id=”775″]

How To Successfully Outsource Content Creation At Affordable Price

Outsourcing article writing is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made to take my online business to the next level. It’s not because I cannot write. In fact, I’m sure that you love my content if you’re reading this part, right?

But I want to be an entrepreneur, not a writer. As I’m scaling up my business, it’s crucial for me to create a system and let other people in to help me. In this section, I’ll be sharing with you my 2-year experience in outsourcing content creation.

Where To Find Good Writers?

I have used a number of sources for hiring writers including: Textbroker.com, Odesk.com, warriorforum.com, blackhatworld.com, and some other places as well. Here are my comments on each of those sources:

Textbroker.com: This is definitely one of the best places for you to get your article created. There are thousands of English native speakers and professional writers, journalists who are waiting to write articles for you. The quality of the outputs depends on the quality level you choose. In my opinion, 3-star writers are very good for your niche websites, the turnaround time is pretty fast and the ordering process is smooth. One of the drawbacks I don’t like about this service is its high price. A 3-star writer would typically charge you $0.016 per word or $8 per 500-word article. It’s not so affordable when you are just starting up. Some experienced entrepreneur like Spencer Haws at Nichepursuits.com are using Textbroker so if you would like to give it a try, go ahead :).

Warriorforum.com/Blackhatworld.com: These 2 forums have dedicated sections for their members to buy/sell services. There are dozens of services out there, some are very good, some are mediocre, you’ll have to test them out and read their reviews carefully before making an order. I have used their services in the past, but for a long time business, it’s not the best decision as your orders will be processed by many writers so the quality will vary. Another thing is that you don’t have direct connection with the writers, which makes it hard to give them instructions and feedbacks.

Odesk.com: This is the best solution for me. Odesk is a job market place where you can post your job for free and then hundred of writers will apply for it. You’ll need to filter out and pick the best writers. Seem difficult? Don’t worry! I will walk you through the entire process now.

How To Recruit Article Writers on Odesk

Hiring in Odesk is easy. The key to successfully hiring a good writer is to understand their needs and provide exactly what they are looking for. Your job description should clearly describe your business, requirements, benefit/salary and the potential for a long term work. Here is the exact job description I always used, It’s updated frequently as I’m learning from other people. The last update was when I read some articles about outsourcing by Quinn at Cubicle Free (Thank Quinn :D).

We’re looking for an Article Writer to generate high-quality written content for our business.

About the Company

You would be working as an article writer for a digital publishing company which builds a lot of websites in many different niches.

Your application

———————————————————————————————To be considered, research and write me a short well written 150 word unique article about “how to start a blog”. Grammar, punctuation, and sentence flow is very important. Stay on topic. Articles will be checked via Copyscape. —————————————————————————————————–

Your bid is on 10 articles (maximum bid of $80), and only bid if you accept and understand the requirements.

When contacting me for this job, please mention the codeword ‘niche articles’ in the first line of the message so I know you have read the job requirements carefully.

Your responsibilities:

– Develop content themes based on the direction and creative brief provided by our team– Write original, high-quality, SEO-friendly articles that communicate our messaging to a wide variety of audiences– Publish written articles on a variety of content websites, content management systems or media outlets– Take on ad-hoc writing projects as they arise– Contribute ideas on improving existing messaging and content

Your qualifications:

– Excellent writing, grammar, spelling and formatting– Strong communication skills– An exceptional portfolio that demonstrates an ability to create compelling copy for a wide variety of brands, audiences and industries – A complete oDesk profile– References or an established reputation in oDesk preferred

Multiple writers will be needed and the best writers will be given a Skype interview. Don’t bother sending me a fancy resume. If you can prove you are an excellent writer through the article above, you will likely be hired.

Terms

1. All writing you create for me needs to be your 100% original work and free of any copyrighted or plagiarized materials.

2. I will own all rights to the completed articles. You may not distribute them in any way upon delivery.

3. While I am very easy to please, unlimited revisions will be expected until I am completely satisfied with the completed articles.

Best Wishes,Tung Tran

Thank you for your consideration.

Here are some tips to help you go through a review process easier:

For the most part, Filipino writer is the best in terms of quality and price. The Philippines is the 4th largest English speaking country in the world. I have been working with a Filipino writer for over 2 years and he always delivers amazing articles. You can also find some writers from the USA (rarely), Australia and India as well. Avoid people from other countries as they are not native English speakers.

Instantly Decline Anyone Who Failed To Include The Code Word “Niche Articles”. The code word is to ensure that the contractors have read your job description carefully as it shows that they are serious and want to work with you.

Instantly Decline Anyone Who Doesn’t Include A Portfolio. If they can’t provide you with any proof that they are qualified for your job, ignore them. I want to check their previous works to make sure that they can write well-researched article with good English.

‘Save’ The Ones That Fit Your Requirements. You will have lots of applications, so sorting through them all takes time. When you identified a potential writers, save them and move to the next immediately. After clearing the list, come back to the saved list and decide which one to interview.

Make Notes On Each Saved Applicant. You can’t remember everyone so making note will be helpful for the future reference.

Read Previous Employer Feedback. You can find some valuable information about your potential contractors by reading those feedbacks.

How To Effectively Work With Your Writers

Now you have your writer. The next thing you need to learn is how to manage them effectively to ensure the best quality of work. Here are my 5 tips:

1. Set The Right Expectations and Deadlines

Your writers are not a super VA so don’t expect them to do everything for you from writing the article, finding images and publishing it to your website. Just have them focus on creating high quality content and have others to publish it. The quality of work will be increased a lot.

Having a deadline is also very important. If you can’t give them a specific deadline, there’s a great chance that your project will be delayed as they won’t put them on higher priority.

2. Create Clear and Specific Instruction

Again, don’t throw a list of keywords to your writers and expect them to do magic for you. I was doing that in the past, but soon enough, I found out that doing so greatly lowers the quality of outputs. Alternatively, it’s better to hire a dedicated content manager or team manager to help you with that. Jon at AuthorityWebsiteIncomes.com is an expert at building a great and efficient team, visit his website and ask him :D.

You should clearly tell them:

What do you want the article to be?

What is the format you like?

Which article template to follow? (use the template in the first section)

Or just have them read the first section of this article :D.

3. Give Timely Feedbacks

If something isn’t being done correctly or to your liking, be sure to communicate your concerns in a timely manner. If you make any change to their work, let them know about what you changed and why. Without feedback, your writers will not adjust their writing to fit your needs. Let your writers know what you want so that they can do it next time.

4. Train Them

Everyone needs training to become a better person. So do your writers. You can send them some ebooks or blog posts about writing or even buy them some premium trainings. Don’t hesitate to invest in people. They are the biggest assets in your business. If you don’t train them properly, don’t expect high quality work. Here is a good book that I highly recommend you to give your writers:

5. Treat Your People Well

You’re the boss, right =). But you still have to respect them and treat them well. Say thank you when they deliver high quality work. Give them some bonuses or gifts on their birthday. Be nice and people will be willing to work hard for you.

Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily; even if you had no title or position. —Brian Tracy

Final Words

Wow I reached 2500 words 😀

The last thing I have to tell you is to focus on building a long-term relationship as it’s the most important factor to your outsourcing success. Once you found high quality writers and train them well, you would want to keep them around. Well-trained writers are the most valuable assets of your business.

It may take you some time and money to find them, but it’s worth it. Content is ruling the web. Once you establish a team of great writers, you’ll have a high chance to succeed and all the works left are breeze. Be sure to treat them nicely and keep them informed so that they will stick with you for years to come.

Have you found your writers? What are your thoughts and experiences on outsourcing content creation?

Great epic article Tung! – Well done putting lots of best practice together – I can see how this will work really well. I will try textbrokers on your recommendation and those templates looks pretty handy as well. Quinn

Absolutely the best guide ever for people who would like to hire some quality content for their site. Amazing post, you collected data and put all in one executive post as well as your own experience, I think that this is the only guide you need ever! 🙂

I usually outsource article but never try Odesk because I don’t know how to find the qualify writers at an affordable rate there. I’m not good at English, so how could I know that the articles are well written or not? What do you recommend the service that could control the quality of the articles after the writers submitted to me?

Do you think about the quality of Level 3 & Level 4 articles at TextBroker?

This is a very good information for me because the most difficult part for me is outsoucing the content. In addition, content creation is one of the most expensive for me.

I’m very dissapointed with my current providers. I spent an average of $2/100 words article. That’s why I don’t mind paying for the quality articles. I just want to know from your opinion about TextBroker; I heard somewhere, i forgot where, that Level 3 & 4 are having the same quality. But, I want to use Level 4 but now I’m in a confusion.

Hey, Tung—-Great article! I like that one line, “I want to be an entrepreneur, not a writer.” I’ve always written my own content, but it takes SO long… maybe I’ll give Odesk a try. Thank you for the guidance!

Hey Tung Thanks for all the great information. I’m really new to affiliate marketing so this is really helpful for me. Thanks as well for the great Keyword work you did for me. Looking forward to getting a site up. Can I outsource my WordPress site as well as content. it takes me forever to put a site together. Thanks for the help. Jerry

That was an awesome post! It’s really very informative. Have you tried zerys? You will get quality people over there too..also do you have any plan for writing a day-wise SEO set up you do for a website? I mean something that is more elaborative than spencers (nichepursuits) do..

I have been using textbroker to get articles written, but I’m ready to try something else. The quality is ok, but it’s higher priced and I want to stretch my money out further. I was reluctant to try odesk because I wasn’t sure how to use it. Thanks for explaining it, I can’t believe how much you shared!

I’ve just started outsourcing a couple months ago for my first 3 niche sites. I’m a writer at Textbroker, so since I’m familiar with the site I decided to start there.

I like how easy it is to set up an order with wordcount, keyword requirements, etc. But it does get expensive.

It’s funny, as a WRITER for TB, I always complain about how LOW the pay is; yet as a CLIENT for TB, I complain about how HIGH the cost is 😀

My experiences with 3-star writers is kind of a mixed bag. Some used to be 4-star writers, they just maybe had a few low-rated articles that temporarily dropped them back down to 3 stars. Others are good enough to be 4-star, but they’re still new to the site, and TB won’t start new writers higher than 3 stars.

But some of those 3-star writers suck. I actually had one article that I felt too embarrassed to put on my site. I never should have accepted it. And I’ve had a few others that were poorly written. I think the key is to find some good 3-star writers that you like and then give them assignments directly.

Anyways, despite my ups and downs with TB, I still have some money in my account, so I’ll be using them for another month.

I think what makes it hard for me is that I am a 4-star writer on there, and I could probably make it as a 5-star writer, so I’m very picky about the writing quality. But I just am starting to loathe writing product reviews and other boring content for my niche sites lol. Like you, I’d rather be an entrepreneur than a writer!

This was a great post! One of your best, for sure. I can tell you spent a lot of time working on it. In fact, at first I thought it was too good to be yours! I was like, “Did he outsource this?” hahaha

Hey, I apologize if that came across as a cheap shot. I don’t mean to offend in any way. I meant it as a compliment 😛

Anyways, Tung, congrats on the success of your dumbbell site. I hope it continues to do well for you.

I spent over 8 hours writing this article. I think no outsourcer can write an indepth and informative post like this because simply they don’t have the real experience hehe. Thanks for the compliment as well!

Thank you much for this useful post. I am Vietnamese and my English is not good. I worry about interview writer via skype. Can you give me a little guide and several sample sentences what you offten use when interviewing? Thank you much!

Great post. I tried Textbroker (based on one of your past articles). I paid $20 for a 4 star writer, about 750 words if I recall. I wasn’t super-impressed. It wasn’t bad, but for the price I expected a little bit more.

So, I tried 3 different writers on Fiverr.com. I’ve since spent money on another 5 writers. I have 8 original articles that pretty much mirrored the quality of the content from textbroker. Some if it is actually much better. But I get an added benefit: I don’t have to put my money in escrow on Fiverr. Not sure what I’m going to buy from Textbroker for the $5 and some change….

When I looked at closing my account at Textbroker I was notified that I would lose my balance once I close the account. Unfortunately I specified too wide a range for the article (750 to 1100 words—which would have maxed out my $25 deposit) so I’ll never get that money back.

I’d recommend fiverr for anyone looking to get into buying content because it’s an inexpensive way to get started and you don’t have to deal with the account creation steps in Textbroker (they wanted my phone number, then sent me a PIN via text, blah blah blah) or the escrow piece. Unless you’ve got a really complex niche, then textbroker might be a better fit.

I wouldn’t recommend textbroker because before you can place an order they require you to send in lots of documents for “verification”. Just go somewhere else because textbroker.com sucks and is too expensive.

As a Filipino web content writer, I’d like to thank you for mentioning the qualities of my fellow local writers, especially coming from a non-Filipino.

But unfortunately, we cannot avoid haters especially from first-world countries. I myself have been a victim of racial discrimination, and for offering “low-price” articles.

While I still entertain clients from Fiverr, I recently decided to create my own online portfolio. It helped me a lot to win new clients even if I increased my price.

I’m not against freelance SEO writers who joined Odesk and similar websites. However, it will be better if they create their own professional site that serves as their online resume. By doing this, they can also dictate their price.

If they are sure that they can write high quality web content and compete with native English writers, I strongly suggest not negotiating the price.

Thanks and I hope you pursued your plan to visit the Philippines to study English.

Actually I think in many cases, a well-trained and professional writers from other countries can provide much better work than a native english writer. The only thing that matter here is how much time have a writer invested in improving his/her writing skill.

You’re right about creating a blog to promote your freelancing service. It’s a great way to establish you as an expert and raise your price.

I’ve looked at your blog, it’s awesome man 😀 You are really good at writing and you deserve a price.

I cannot afford your price but I wish you all the best 🙂

PS: Do you know any writer who can write well at a rate of $1 per 100 words? Thank you in advance 🙂

Writers are your business partners and over then time become your family. It is always fun to work with good and real writers because they dwell in a world of their own. But the key is finding a good one. However, one problem, I often run into is the dead lock with good writers when one fine day they just won’t be able to write any word :(.

I’ve used oDesk numerous times for VA positions in another field altogether and am turning to it for secondary article writing. This is the first time using the fix amount bid. Quick question – for the $80 for 10 articles, do you put the fixed bit as $80 (with the expectation of getting 10 articles) or $8 (since it’s going to be 10 in the future)? Does oDesk release the full $80 after 1 piece of work because it doesn’t know the funds are to be distributed over time?

It’s worth than most of paid stuff ebook sold out there. With this kind of article, I’m sure whatever goggle change their update it won’t affect an article like this. Thanks for great content Tung. Keep share the great

I DO want to write as much as I want to be an entrepreneur so hiring others isn’t my focus right now as much as whipping my WP site into a template from which I can make money when I put it online in January. I’m looking forward to your Niche information in my mailbox to see how I can mold my interests into saleable content. Since I have many, many interests, I’m sure I’ll find some good fits.

I’ve signed up for your newsletter and will be looking forward to articles that are related to PBNs, affiliate marketing, etc. Your comment above mine (“I usually send them training and books to consume instead of money”) is classic writer’s advice. If you want to write, for heaven’s sake, READ. My journalism degree is and means little in comparison to my life as a reader. The good thing about having written for so many years is the ability to churn out 10,000 words a day every day.